The Greening of a Dictatorship

International environmentalists have praised Burma for its commitment to conservation, yet in reality the greening of the Burmese dictatorship is just another tool for military coercion and advancement.

By the year 2000, Burma had designated over 15,000 sq km of protected areas in 31 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, covering 2.26 percent of the total area of the country, according to the Nature and Wilderness Conservation Division, or NWCD.

In addition to the protected areas already established, foreign conservationists are helping the Burmese regime to create the greater “Northern Forest Complex” in Kachin State, Burma.

STOPPING BY THE WOODS Logs from Kachin State make their way to China’s Yunnan Province.

The first step was the establishment of the HkakaboraziNational Park in the far north of KachinState, where neither the New York City-based international organization Wildlife Conservation Society, or WCS, nor the Burmese junta consulted with the Kachin Independence Organization, or KIO, which controlled the area.